Nasa scientists believe they have found a way to spot osteoporosis bone loss at the earliest disease stages.
Linked List | Permalink David Smith, for The Guardian:
With a line-up that includes Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin, the UN's choice of ambassadors has been known to cause raised eyebrows or the odd smirk.
Seldom, however, has there been such anger, or questioning of the organisation's credibility, as that greeting the appointment of a new international envoy for tourism: Robert Mugabe.
Improbable as it seems, the Zimbabwean president, who is widely accused of ethnic cleansing, rigging elections, terrorising opposition, controlling media and presiding over a collapsed economy, has been endorsed as a champion of efforts to boost global holidaymaking.
What the actual hell?
Linked List | Permalink This kind of robotic system for packing up video games really hammers home just how humans are really not necessary for so many jobs today.
The future's coming.
Linked List | Permalink I don't like social sharing buttons on websites. They're ugly.
In fact, when I redesigned this very website a few weeks ago, I made the conscious decision to not include any.
Today, iA's Sweep the Sleaze blog post was making the rounds. Marco Arment's comments on the article resonate with me:
I don’t embed any sharing buttons for one big reason: they look cheap and desperate. They would devalue my voice and reduce my credibility.
For me, every other issue — clutter, load times, scrolling speed, privacy, security — is secondary to that.
If people want to share my work (which I absolutely adore), they will find their own way to do it. It is not difficult to tweet a link to a webpage.
I fail to see any compelling reason to include social sharing buttons, besides shoving down your readers' throats just how many times your post has been shared.
From the same Dan Frommer piece:
When a Google employee asked Cook about Apple's advertising business, Tim Cook joked that it would be very small next to Google's. "I don't see it at the same level by any means" as Apple's core products, he said. "It's not nearly to us what it is to you, obviously."
Apple is a product company.
Linked List | Permalink Dan Frommer has a great analysis of Tim Cook's recent D conference interview. Whilst I think it's worth reading the entire piece, the point I think is most valuable here is the criteria Apple has to fulfil before releasing a new product:
Can Apple control or own the key technology? Can it make a significant contribution beyond others in the industry? Can it build a product that we all want?
If the answers to these questions are yes, Apple is likely to release a product.
Simple.
Linked List | Permalink Brent Simmons talks about advertising, then specifically mentions Facebook:
We all know, I think, that advertising has to grow more frequent and obtrusive to remain effective.
Maybe the thinking is that the Facebook database will reach some magical tipping point where the data becomes immensely valuable to advertisers, and the price of ads will reverse its trend, will go up instead of continuing to go down.
But I think that’s recklessly optimistic. Faith that the data will be valuable is the opium of the executive class.
If I were an investor, I would not be investing in Facebook. It doesn't looks to be sustainable.
Linked List | Permalink Zack Whittaker:
You would think an executive body of 27 member states that dictates part of their respective laws would adhere to its own? Think again.
On all European Union institution websites, you will be lucky to find a single page that asks the visitor for permission to set cookies. But they’re using them all the same.
Embarrassing.
Linked List | Permalink This weekend I visited a recording studio. Before I arrived, I needed to know the differences between a few important musical terms.
The Rock House Blog helped me out:
Using Gain, Overdrive, and Distortion can either add or detract from your overall guitar tone, so it's a good idea to know the differences between them. Technically speaking, there are several definitions to these terms, but we are only going to deal with the audio Aspects, or how it sounds to your ears.
Linked List | Permalink